This invention relates to a separator for separating gas from a liquid and is particularly, but not exclusively, concerned with the separation of gas from a gas and liquid mixture delivered from a liquid ring vacuum pump.
Liquid ring vacuum pumps are well known in the art and comprise a rotor arranged eccentrically within a cylinder which is fed with liquid such as water from a supply. The rotor comprises a series of generally radial blades, and rotation of the rotor causes the liquid to centrifuge outwardly to form a ring of liquid around the inside of the cylinder. Chambers are defined between the inner surface of the ring and a hub of the rotor from which the blades extend due to the eccentric position of the rotor within the housing. Changing volume of the chambers during rotation of the rotor draws air into the pump through an inlet and discharges a mixture of air and liquid from the pump through an outlet.
In order to separate the air from the liquid it has been proposed hitherto to provide a separator adjacent the vacuum pump into which the mixture from one or more outlets of the vacuum pump is introduced. It is conventional to utilize a floor mounted separator, but such a separator increases the floor space required for a vacuum pump and separator arrangement. To reduce that problem, it has also been proposed to utilize a separator having a generally horizontal cylindrical or rectangular body mounted at an overhead position relative to the vacuum pump. While such separators take up less floor space, the separation of gas and air is not carried out in a particularly efficient manner in such separators. For example, the mixture entering the separator through an inlet of smaller cross sectional area than the cross sectional area of the body may simply be directed at right angles against an opposing surface so that the mixture impinges directly thereon prior to the liquid falling to the bottom of the cylinder from whence it is drained. Such a method of separation is not particularly efficient and the separated gas can contain an undesirable quantity of liquid droplets resulting from the impinging action.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved form of separator which can be used in an overhead position and which will separate gas from the liquid effectively.